Results tagged “cps”

• A Chicago Public Schools student has been arrested for sexually assaulting a seven-year-old.
• State legislators approved a plan to place a constitutional amendment that allows for the recall of the governor on next year's ballot.
• GQ has put together their list of D.C.'s most powerful people and Rahmbo comes in at Number One.

The order requiring CPS to include racial minorities at the city's most sought-after schools, was thrown out by the US District Court Sept. 24, ending almost 30 years of enforced integration. The order required that white students could not account for more than 35 percent of the students at the city's most sought after magnet schools. WBEZ has more on the story here and you can read the full court decision here [PDF]

• The Wheaton Police Department was evacuated today after a box of explosives was found in a parking lot outside the building.
• The unionized workers of another Sun-Times Media Group paper rejected the demands of businessman James Tyree's bid for the company even as STMG CEO Jeremy Halbreich began visiting newsrooms in an effort to drum up support.
• Former Blagojevich adviser Christopher Kelly, who committed suicide over the weekend, was laid to rest today.

Chicago Public School buses got a technology makeover this summer, and they’re ready just in time for school to start next week, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.The fleet’s 1,600 buses have been outfitted with remote GPS systems and in-vehicle mobile data terminals, which together will make the buses more efficient and safer—particularly for special-needs students. And, by December, the older buses will be outfitted with cleaner-running technology, thanks to a $1 million Environmental Protection Agency program.

• CPS officials are boasting about higher test scores, but are they misleading?
• Police caught a man accused of a rape in Logan Square.
• An Amtrak train bound for Chicago crashed into a sedan today, killing all five people in the car.

                     

More than 2,000 Chicago Public School students from all over the city came to Douglas Park on Saturday for the second-annual Fun Run, hosted by nonprofit Chicago Run. The fun run, which is the culmination of a year-long classroom exercise project, attracted students and parents to a one mile course around the park. Over the course of the school year, students have logged more than 136,000 miles in a Chicago Run database, running 3-5 times per week during school hours. Organizers said the program serves at least 4,000 students in 21 elementary schools throughout the city. The program, including a fall Fun Run, will pick up when classes start next year.

Yesterday hundreds of records of special education students at Lake View High School dating back two decades were found in a Lakeview alley. Those records included confidential and sealed records instructed to be opened “only by the psychologist.”

Two teenagers are held in the horrific murder of 15-year-old Alex Arellano earlier this month on the Southwest Side.

Chicago Police reported Friday that there have been 108 murders in Chicago between January and April, a 19.4 percent drop from last year, which saw 134 murders during the same time frame. They have also recovered 421 more firearms and 49 more assault weapons than during this period last year. Total violent crime is down 2.8 percent overall, and property crime is down 9.6 percent. Police Superintendent Jody Weis attributes the decline to new crime reduction strategies. "With the summer fast approaching," Weis said in a press release from the police department, "we will look closely at the tactics which have made the streets safer and engage the community to help us continue in this direction."

Chicago Public Schools today announced that they will open nine new schools and expand two existing schools, just weeks after the CPS school board voted to close 16 schools based on low enrollment and low performance. The CPS will create seven high schools, three elementary schools and one middle school. They've proposed for some of the schools to fill the spaces that are currently occupied by the 14 elementary schools and two high schools that the CPS has decided to close.

Carnell Pitts, 18, was shot and killed at a house party on the South Side late Friday night, just two weeks after his younger brother, Kendrick Pitts, 17, was shot and killed along with two others. Carnell Pitts had allegedly been arguing with someone and was shot in the back. He later died at Advocate Trinity Hospital of multiple gunshot wounds. The death was ruled a homicide, and the police do not have any suspects in custody at this time.

CPS CEO Ron Huber(super)man saved six schools from being closed, leaving 16 schools on the list of those that will be closed and/or consolidated.

With Ron Huberman moving from the CTA to the Chicago Public Schools in recent weeks, the search is on for a new CTA head. Sources at City Hall are now saying that Aviation Commissioner Richard Rodriguez is the lead candidate. Originally, the top pick was alleged to be Terry Peterson, Daley's 2007 campaign manager, but it doesn't appear Peterson has any interest in leaving Rush University Medical Center where he is vice president of government affairs. Rodriguez has formerly worked with the Chicago Housing Authority and the Department of Aviation.

More layers are shedding to the floor in Chicago Public Schools. Only two weeks after the system was hit with lawsuits alleging inappropriate searches of students, two more families have filed complaints.

The Mayor is considering the CTA’s Ron Huberman to potentially succeed Arne Duncan to take the top job at Chicago Public Schools. According to the Trib, the Mayor could make a decision as early as next week.

It looks like Chicago’s first high school for GLBT students may not be back in the closet after all. Last month, a plan to open Pride Campus of Social Justice High School was shot down by Mayor Daley over concerns that the school amounted to segregation. The plan, however, has now been revived and retooled. Pride Campus will now be called Social Justice Solidarity High School and will allow kids who are bullied for other reasons. “They wanted to try and make sure that the scope was broadened so that kids who are isolated for other issues, whether that be religion, obesity or other things that kids get teased about...have a spot at that school too,” said Chicago Public Schools spokesman Michael Vaughen to the Chicago Tribune.

Now in its third year, the annual Mustaches for Kids fundraising event in Chicago combines an in (on?) your face concept with a commitment to raise money for Chicago public schools. M4K growers compete to sprout the sweetest ‘stash in four week’s time while soliciting the most pledges and donations to the campaign.

Elisha Cooper’s most recent book -- ridiculous/hilarious/terrible/cool -- is the result of time spent shadowing eight upperclassmen at Chicago’s Walter Payton College Prep during the 2005/2006 school year.

Would a public school that caters to gay and lesbian teens be a welcome addition to CPS? That was the question at hand during a meeting of about 200 people yesterday at the Center on Halsted who discussed The Social Justice High School – Pride Campus with leaders of the Gay Liberation Network. The idea for this new school, born of a push from Greater Lawndale Little Village High School for Social Justice, is that it would provide a safe learning environment for LGBT teens who are frequently victims of torment.

CPS unveiled a pilot program today that would give freshman and sophomores at 20 schools a cash incentive to earn good grades: As are worth $50, Bs $35, and Cs $20. Students are graded every five weeks in math, English, social sciences, science and physical education, and they get half the money up front and half upon graduation. Wait, you can get $20 for getting a C in gym?

State Senator Reverend Jame Meeks's controversial school boycott is underway today, with should-be CPS students bussed to New Trier Township High School and Sunset Ridge School. Protest organizers were hoping to have 3,000 students participate in the boycott, intended to highlight the funding disparities between CPS students and their wealthy suburban counterparts. According to WBBM, the actual turnout is more in the hundreds than the thousands.

Rev. Al Sharpton joined the call for CPS students to boycott the first day of school. State Senator Rev. James Meeks suggested the boycott, which includes taking CPS students to schools in the suburbs to highlight the funding disparity, at the end of July.

Chicago Public Schools gave a car to a 12-year-old for perfect attendance over a three-month period.

Chicago schools are out for the summer, but education reporting gets no such vaycay. A new study shows the revamped SATs don't do a better job of predicting college grades than the old SATs. The new test, which includes a writing portion, is, like the older test, a better predictor for women than men and for whites than minorities. What the study fails to mention is that the new SATs have also created an uncrossable divide between people who took the old test and people who took the one--those new scores don't make sense at all. How are siblings supposed to compete now, we ask. How will classic Saved By The Bell episodes make sense to new generations?

Erika Prince, 32, was shot and killed yesterday near 87th and Euclid. Prince was a special education teacher at Arthur Dixon elementary school, where she'd taught for the last six years, and she herself was an alumn. Her nine-year-old daughter is an honor student there, too.

An all-star principal for CPS is facing embezzlement charges. Mirna Diaz Ortiz pleaded not guilty to a 42-count indictment that charges she forged checks and stole $35,000, but her lawyers aren't arguing that she didn't do these things--they're arguing she's not criminally liable.

Two teenagers have been charged as adults in the weekend killing of 18-year-old Chavez Clarke, who was shot on his way out of Saturday classes at Simeon Career Academy. Samuel Hill, 17 (far left), and Roland Little, 19 (left), were charged with first-degree murder; police say Clarke and Hill, the shooter, had on-going beef. Students from Simeon are planning a rally at the State of Illinois building downtown tomorrow to protest against gun violence.

Today's long read, totally worth it: Violin prodigy Rachel Barton Pine's career was put on hold after a Metra accident severed her left leg and mangled her right in 1995. Now her career's getting back on track, but the road hasn't been easy. [Trib]

More than 200 high school students, residents of the ABLA Homes, haven't been to school since March 7 because they're afraid of gang retaliation following the murder of one of their classmates.

Could CPS open a handful of boarding schools? Arne Duncan is thinking about it. [Trib]